Watch: US Navy provides 3D simulator for aircraft carrier flight deck crews

The US Office of Naval Research Global and the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division collaborated to create a training simulator for aircraft carrier flight deck crews. The simulator has 3D technology and enables the communication of the full flight deck team with key decision-makers.

In the past, flight deck crews had the potential of training only while they were on the job. Yet, the partnership between ONR Global and NAWCTSD brought the ‘Flight Deck Crew Refresher Training Expansion Packs’ technology which enables sailors and marines to train. This technology is a game-based immersive 3D technologies that enables for individual, team or multi-team training events.

Moreover, the first three TEPs will help a carrier’s:

• Primary Flight Control team;
• Landing Signal Officer (LSO) team;
• Catapult Launch Team.

What’s more, the training sessions provide a real-life, with the aid of virtual environments, experience. Even the flight patterns that happen during the simulations are real-life patterns conducted by pilots. The training provides normal operations and emergency conditions too, exposing the US navy crew to a variety of real-life scenarios.

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One of the most hazardous environments in the US Navy is the deck of an aircraft carrier, because catapult systems that may remove limbs, furious engines, whipping propellers and high winds create a chaotic environment.

The most difficult operation is to help a pilot land an aircraft on a short slab of pitching steel in the middle of the ocean. Helping a pilot land in a difficult situation couldn’t be handled properly if it was not for the flight deck crews that are responsible for safely launching and recovering aircraft.

Finally, the idea for the Flight Crew Training via 3D was established by an LSO instructor at Naval Air Station OCEANA. TechSolutions—ONR Global’s rapid-response science and technology program that develops innovative technologies to solve problems voiced by Sailors and Marines, in a time of 12 months, listened to the idea and then helped launch it.